I Want More Pizza: Real World Money Skills For High School, College, And Beyond

I Want More Pizza: Real World Money Skills for High School, College, and Beyond by Steve Burkholder is a short, deliberately teen-friendly guide that reframes personal finance around a metaphor every young person already understands — pizza. Money, Burkholder argues, is like a pizza you have to divide into slices: how you split it between spending, saving, and growing determines whether you run out or end up with more.

Written specifically for high-schoolers and college students, the book is intentionally brief and readable in a single sitting, making it a natural fit for reluctant readers and busy students. It walks through the essentials of personal finance in plain language: saving before spending, building and sticking to a simple budget, the surprising math of compound growth, the traps of credit-card debt, and how small habits started early compound into large results over time.

Burkholder's tone is encouraging rather than preachy, and each section ends with concrete, do-it-now actions rather than abstract theory. Because it avoids dense jargon and heavy math, the book is frequently recommended by educators and parents as a first introduction to money for teenagers who would never pick up a traditional finance textbook.

For homeschooling families, I Want More Pizza makes an excellent low-stakes entry point into a money-skills unit — a quick shared read that opens the door to deeper conversations about budgeting, saving, and financial independence before a teen heads off to college or their first job. At around 100 pages, it delivers the core money-management mindset teens need without overwhelming them, and pairs well with more comprehensive curricula for a full life-skills course.